life expectancy of a tomato-eating mockingbird - Page 2

JohnWayne · June 7, 2012

I guess the feeding habits of both squirrels and mockingbirds have to do with the natural food they have on hand. We have lots of mockingbirds and I have a feeling they sometimes wish I would go to bed and let them sleep..LOL ( I have a habit of taking my guitar out to the porch in the wee hours) But they have never bothered my tomatoes to my knowledge. They can be found hunting insects along with my bluebirds.

I have never seen a squirrel in my garden. They have worried the hound out of me getting into bird seed containers or feeders but not my garden. Find someone with black walnut trees and gather up a bucket of them. Hide them like Easter eggs. Build windmills with walnuts at the ends and place them near a window where you can watch the squirrel learn to get the nuts without falling off as his weight makes it spin.

Hang them from mason cord and coat the cord in lard. Hang it from cord again then pull it to the side at a steep angle with a very light thread so that the weight of the animal causes the thread to break and he goes for a ride.

The point is to give the squirrel something to do, something to gnaw on and something to eat all at once. If you can't find black walnuts or hickory nuts etc, buy a bag of English walnuts and try it. As rodents they need hard shells to gnaw. ( they will gnaw bone or deer antler as well )

June 7, 2012	#16
JohnWayne Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: Hickory,North Carolina Posts: 470	I guess the feeding habits of both squirrels and mockingbirds have to do with the natural food they have on hand. We have lots of mockingbirds and I have a feeling they sometimes wish I would go to bed and let them sleep..LOL ( I have a habit of taking my guitar out to the porch in the wee hours) But they have never bothered my tomatoes to my knowledge. They can be found hunting insects along with my bluebirds. I have never seen a squirrel in my garden. They have worried the hound out of me getting into bird seed containers or feeders but not my garden. Find someone with black walnut trees and gather up a bucket of them. Hide them like Easter eggs. Build windmills with walnuts at the ends and place them near a window where you can watch the squirrel learn to get the nuts without falling off as his weight makes it spin. Hang them from mason cord and coat the cord in lard. Hang it from cord again then pull it to the side at a steep angle with a very light thread so that the weight of the animal causes the thread to break and he goes for a ride. The point is to give the squirrel something to do, something to gnaw on and something to eat all at once. If you can't find black walnuts or hickory nuts etc, buy a bag of English walnuts and try it. As rodents they need hard shells to gnaw. ( they will gnaw bone or deer antler as well )